Insurance Journal Academy of Insurance Instructor Spotlight

Mary Eisenhart

Learn the business-building techniques Mary Eisenhart teaches on a daily basis at her own 14-year-old consulting firm. Beginning Febr. 17, 2011, Eisenhart will begin her three-part series, “The How To’s of Program Business,” with the Insurance Journal Academy.

Eisenhart has experienced the insurance industry from both sides: in independent agencies and with insurance carriers. In 1996, she became the owner of Eisenhart Consulting Group. She assists in the building of insurance organizations. She is also the author of a Best Practices tool for IIAA, “The Next Generation: A Young Agent’s Best Practices Leadership Guide.”

“It’s all about understanding people and cultures, and how to get people to do what you need them to do,” Eisenhart says. “Understanding what to do intellectually to make a company run well… that’s only 50 percent of the battle. The rest of the battle is about engaging people and aligning them, and getting them all doing things consistently, and this is the place where more agencies have the hardest time.”

Eisenhart says in order to engage people, it is important to have a purpose, a vision and clarity. She stresses the importance of procedures being in place for parameters.

“The most important thing to engage people is to make sure they know what you want them to do, and then, after that, to put a framework together so that it can be done.” After that, be fair and reward people when they do a great job, she says. Above all, she recommends being client-focused. “If you do what’s great for the client, ultimately, it’s great for the business and the employees as well.”

Eisenhart has a process for new business relationships. “What they (prospective clients) usually do is they call me up and they say they have these symptoms… they have this problem. It is almost always a symptom of a different problem, and 99 percent of the time it’s because they might have the right people, but the wrong business model.”

All business at Eisenhart Consulting is generated through referrals from speaking engagements, agencies or carriers. “I love what I do. I am one of the luckiest people alive. My father said it is not lost on him that I now get paid for doing what I used to get in trouble for, which is talking. I love puzzles, and I love figuring out the puzzle.”

Course Description

In “The How To’s of Program Business,” Eisenhart will cover three key topics:

• Research: determining where there is an opportunity, and whether the agency has already developed a program without being aware of it; which “players” in the agency have an expertise in a particular industry; the competition and what markets are serving the need.
• Development: getting the idea from research to reality; determining what steps to take to protect your intellectual property; defining and refining details of research.
• Implementation and Maintenance: Rolling the plan out and reaching your target market; development of sales and marketing plans; measuring results and adjusting as appropriate.

For more information, visit www.ijacademy.com.

Topics Training Development